Vegas Oddsmakers' Top 25

Thanks to an e-mail from a BYU fan in Plantation, Florida of all places, I've realized I'm way late posting this week's Vegas Oddsmakers' Top 25 poll. And this, of all weeks, is when we actually need Vegas to start breaking some ties and telling us who the best two teams in the country are. (Btw, BYU fans like the Vegas poll, because it's the only one in which they do exceptionally well. Hopefully I can become big in Provo.)

Like I said, this is starting to actually matter, in terms of deciding between Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, Florida, Arkansas and possibly West Virginia. That was the whole point at the beginning of the year, when I started this crusade. Forget about LSU and Texas, with their high Vegas rankings and multiple losses. What we want Vegas to do is to tell us which team should play Ohio State for the national championship. As of this writing, Vegas says it's Southern Cal (same as last week), but Michigan is narrowly behind, having actually moved up with its loss, which makes sense. Arkansas and Florida ought not be in this discussion, Vegas tells us. Suck eggs, Urban Meyer.

And now that my head is clearing, I remember why this is valuable: college football might need to choose between a whole bunch of one-loss teams for its second spot in Glendale. College football will make this choice through sports information directors and coaches and computer programs. Why wouldn't we instead turn the matter over to the people whose livlihoods depend on accurate assessments of football strength? We can decide amongst ourselves to throw out the two-loss teams, and just ask Vegas to judge the various one-loss teams. Someone has to do it, after all.

Yet *another* reason why the college football powers-that-be need to adopt a bracket-style playoff system (what -- like, they're not gonna make money?!?). At the very least, it would be something Vegas would understand...